Yoko Ono thinks Sir Paul McCartney is ''sweet'' for saying she didn't cause The Beatles' break up.

The 80-year-old widow of John Lennon thanked his former bandmate for insisting she ''could not be blamed for anything'' to do with the group's split in 1970.

Speaking in a BBC interview, Yoko - who met John in 1966 while he was still married to first wife Cynthia, before tying the knot with him in 1969 - said: ''Yes, I think [Paul] was sweet to say that [I wasn't to blame] and probably he needed courage to say it. That's why he couldn't say it until now.''

Paul previously said John - who was assassinated in 1980 by a crazed fan - was ''definitely going to leave the band in 1970''.

Yoko has previously said fans of the group were very against her presence in John's life, and how they expected her to be ''a quiet wife, maybe just shutting up or maybe just dying very quickly.''

She added: ''It's the most difficult thing to be. It's more difficult than being a politician's wife.''

Meanwhile, a guitar played by both John and his bandmate George Harrison, who died of lung cancer in 2001, has sold for £269,000 at Auction in New York, over double its estimated value.

The instrument was custom made for John in 1966 and he played it during a video session for The Beatles' 'Hello, Goodbye'. George then used it for rehearsing song 'I Am The Walrus', from 1967 album 'Magical Mystery Tour'.

The guitar had previously sold for £66,000 at an auction in London.